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Entries with the tag: steroids

The NHL has interviewed Washington Capitals front office employees as well as members of the team’s medical and training staffs in recent days as it investigates allegations made by a Florida man arrested last week on steroid charges.

“We’re following very closely the developments in Florida as the case progresses,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told me this afternoon. “We think it’s important from the league’s perspective to investigate this because any allegations of this type are concerning.”

The league’s investigation is being conducted by its security and legal departments.

Interviews with Capitals personnel are ongoing, Daly said, but so far investigators have not been able to establish any connection between the team and suspected drug dealer Richard Thomas, who was arrested Tuesday in Lakeland, Fla., and charged with possession and intent to distribute steroids.

I just got off the phone with Brooks Laich, who is the NHL Players’ Association representative for the Caps. He said he was made aware of the steroids report early this morning and is in the process of calling all of his teammates. Here’s most of what Laich had to say:

Q: Do you have any idea what the suspect in the steroids case is talking about?
A: I have no idea. As far we know it’s just speculation. The guy didn’t say if it was 10 years ago that he sold to the Capitals. Whether it was five ago that he sold. We have no idea. I’ve already been in touch with our players, and there’s nothing on our side to report.

Q: What was your reaction to the sheriff coming out and repeating what a suspect said without offering any additional evidence?
A: I watched the video of it. I was kind of surprised he would say it. But he was also very careful in saying it because of the wake it would cause. As far we’re concerned as players, it’s just accusations of a desperate man trying to get some publicity, I think. But we’ll see how it plays out over the next couple of days.

Update 6:18pm ET: Given that steroids are such a big topic today because of this story, it might interest some people to catch an interview with Sean Hill that Toronto’s AM 640 will be broadcasting at 6:40pm ET. Hill was the first NHLer to ever fail a steroid test, back in 2007, so the topic is likely to come up.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told a U.S. House subcommittee on Wednesday that hockey is not plagued by steroid use among its players.

Bettman joined his major-league counterparts — baseball commissioner Bud Selig, NBA commissioner David Stern and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell — in Washington where he testified that only one player has tested positive for steroid use in the 2½ years since the NHL resumed play after the 2004-05 lockout.

“As a historical matter, the many years that NHL players have been tested in international competition, as well as recent testing under our program, suggests that performance-enhancing drugs had never been part of the culture of the NHL…”